Change the world…by changing your attitude.
Life is Beautiful!
It’s a gift.
Every day is renewal and opportunity.
Everything is for the best.
Believe it. Live it. And share it.
A smile and a positive attitude is contagious in a good way!
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
There are two things to know.
None of us is perfect.
We each have strengths and weaknesses.
No one has all the answers–despite some big egos out there!
That’s why we all need each other.
Knowledge is great, but networking magnifies your potential many times over.
These are two things you definitely want to know. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I heard this interesting saying yesterday, which goes like this:
Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother that is far off.
I looked it up and saw that it is actually from Proverbs 27:10.
Thinking about it a little, I understand that obviously people that are close by can more easily be there and help one another than someone else who is far away.
At the same time, I always learned growing up that:
Blood is thicker than water.
Family is family, and friends are friends. Family is forever, but friends can come and go.
Yet you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.
There are some friends that go back decades to childhood and they are almost like family.
Also, there are sometimes family that are disassociated or even “black sheep” of the family.
I guess in the end what’s most important is how we feel about each other, treat each other, and are there for each other.
Whatever the designation–family or friends–we need each other. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Just thought this was a really funny-sad display in the window of this store in Tel Aviv.
It says:
Relex It’s Just Sex
Forget that Relax is spelled wrong.
But advertising for sexual items in such a casual way…like it’s sex and what’s the big deal.
Maybe I am old school, where sex actually meant a deep personal relationship and emotional intimacy.
…Where you partner was also your spouse and best friend.
Now–unfortunately–it’s just sex!
I think as a society that we have lost something here.
…Something important.
If it’s just sex, and it’s just with anyone, then what does that leave for us with that someone truly special in our lives? 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Being a heart alone in this world is very lonely, indeed.
Chasing another heart, so that we can pair together makes two less lonely hearts.
Two hearts that beat as one making beautiful music together.
When the hearts are in harmony, we sway and are uplifted flying away into the heavens.
And when the music is discordant, we are forced to retune and to grow wings that we never even knew we had.
Hearts that complement each other, help us face the questions we often fear to ask ourselves.
When these hearts meet, they touch so gently, and like silk they dance a perfect dance.
What is meaningless alone is all of a sudden meaningful with another.
What is too painful to bear by oneself is manageable when shared between two.
And what is joyful is magnified in sweetness when there is someone else to enjoy it with.
One heart chases another until they embrace that long blissful embrace. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
There is a very important article in the Wall Street Journal today on the link of loneliness to death.
Frightening loneliness statistics:
– One in 11 Americans over age 50 “lacks a spouse, partner, or living child.”
– More than 1 in 4 baby boomers is divorced or never married.
– 1 out of every 6 people lives alone.
Research indicates that loneliness leads to early death.
The impact of loneliness is equivalent to:
– Smoking 15 cigarettes a day
– Drinking 6 alcoholic beverages a day
Loneliness is worse for mortality than:
– Obesity
– Physical activity
“The effect of isolation is extraordinarily powerful…we have to address loneliness,” says the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Whether you are extroverted or introverted, we all need human interaction, sharing, caring, touch, and love.
Truly, no man is an island!
Those that are stranded on loneliness island need to escape it and make their way back to human civilization.
Alone our lives are dull and stunted; but together, we have the inherent social dynamics to be able to experientially learn, grow, change and mature.
Alone we die–together we live.
It’s not just power in numbers, it’s life itself.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I am learning that synagogue is more than a place to worship G-d.
It is a place of and for the people to express their full range of emotions.
Frankly, I think it is a place for people to laugh and to cry.
Rarely, a week goes by when not one or both of these emotions/actions happen.
Yes, we cry out to G-d in supplication and also are joyous in his holy majesty and presence.
But more than that, as a community, we come together to share of our week and ourselves with each other.
One one hand, we laugh with each other at the funny and ridiculous things that happen to us and at the joy we feel for the blessings that G-d bestows on us daily.
On the other, we cry on each other’s shoulders at the pain and loss that we (G-d forbid) at times must face and endure in the face of illness, evil, and tragedy.
Just today, both things happened in the synagogue and my heart was at one time uplifted with gladness and then at another greatly saddened with the hurt shared–occurrences of each in just a short span of time.
Yes, we laugh and we cry together–alone, it is at once empty and at the other unbearable.
We need to support each other; there is no other way that is not extreme madness.
Put your arms around another to embrace them in great happiness and to let them cry mightily on your shoulder.
Sharing with each other at our houses of worship–that is how we show G-d that we are bound to Him and to each others’ souls–all children of G-d trying to make it together to the next service. 😉
(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)
In elementary school, the children sing about love and romance.
“The spades go.
Two lips together.
Twilight forever.
Bring back my love to me.”
When 2 people are together, it’s as if the angels in heaven themselves are dancing and singing.
Love seems to make everything in the world right again.
Recently, an old person from my building lost his wife of over 60 years!
I see him around and while he continues to go about doing his everyday things, I can see that he misses his wife so much.
He is broken, and his strength is gone.
I remember my grandfather and father the same way when they lost my grandmother and mother, respectively.
Completely devastating to them–their wives were their lives and what made them complete– afterward, they were never really the same.
Our companions are truly our other halves.
When someone asked the old man from my building how he was doing late last week, he simply responded:
“I’m getting along the best that I can.”
He said it was such sadness and loneliness for his wife who passed that his words literally cut right through me.
People need each other–no one is an island–and especially loving couples who have been together for decades and decades–they are for each other and with each other, even if “together forever” is just a song that children sing…it is what we all ultimately wish for. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Wow, these flowers were made for 4th of July, right?
How amazing that G-d (maybe with some man adjustments) made these beautiful red, white, and blue flowers–all-in-one!
Go USA!
It’s truly fantastic to have independence, freedom, human rights, democracy.
We have so much to be grateful for.
And there is so much that the world can learn and benefit from America.
We’re not perfect–nobody and nothing (but G-d) is.
But we stand for some really amazing things–and these values are worth sharing and defending. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I am continuing to learn so much about who is good and who is not so good.
Some people are literally so amazing–giving and caring of others–if they literally have just a single loaf of bread, they will share that willingly with others.
– Their perspective in grounded in a faith that whatever they have, they see it as a gift from G-d and it is only given to them as an opportunity to do good with it.
Then there are others that no matter how much they seem have–and it could be millions of $$$–yet they still can’t stand to see others with even half a mouthful of bread.
– In their narcissistic view, what’s theirs is exceedingly and deservingly theirs, and what’s yours, they believe should also be theirs!
Yet sometimes we misjudge people out of fear or just not knowing enough about them.
We don’t know which category they fall into.
Will they give you the shirt off their back or would they rip the shirt off you blind?
These are some of the challenges we face when confronting others in this scary world of souls being perfected and those that are still all too sullied.
But the righteous will inherit the earth and more importantly, the Heavens…because the truth becomes known and is always absolutely clear to The One Above–and the evil ones, they will wither and die.
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
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